Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: May 4, 2017
Price: $9.99
Creator(s): Akira Toriyama (story); Toyotarou (art)
Format: 192 pgs., Black & White, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4215-9254-1
Age Rating: Teen
ICv2 Rating: 3.5 Stars out of 5
This is a book aimed entirely at existing Dragon Ball Z fans, and as such it follows the patterns of the battles perfectly. There are a few minor flaws, mostly ones that will bother those new to the series. Newcomers will be baffled both by a huge list of characters and their established interactions, so they should be pointed to the original series to read first.
Toyotarou has the art style down perfectly, and is very good at the "outrageous escalation" style of combat violence which makes up much of a Dragon Ball-style story. If there is a weakness, it’s in the between-battles parts of the story, where the pacing is a little odd. For instance, as in some of the previous Dragon Ball stories, there is a subplot involving getting more powerful. In this one, it’s almost glossed over, as not being as important as having a few more panels of fighting. Ascending to virtual godhood seems like it should take up more than one page of story, though.
The insertion of Jaco, one of Toriyama’s other creations, into this story was a bit of a distraction, but served to lighten a plot which is of the possible end-of-the-world type.
In terms of the writing, the only weakness was the portrayal of Goku, who is growing less believable over time, or more overconfident, and it’s hard to tell which. In this case, his [for him, normal] response to a potential end-of-the-world scenario is to view it as a challenge and a test of his fighting skills, but here it just comes across as a little too flippant, even more than in the earlier stories. The sequence read as if he didn’t care what happened to the whole universe, as long as he could find someone cool to battle. That was disturbing in its implications, even in a manga devoted to cosmic-level martial arts battles.
--Nick Smith: Library Technician, Community Services, for the Pasadena Public Library in California.